1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors used to establish an electrical connection between a printed circuit board and a plurality of input and output conductors. More specifically, this invention relates to an input/output connector assembly that is a part of an enclosure in which the printed circuit board is positioned.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multiposition printed circuit board electrical connector headers are typically used to interconnect printed circuit boards to electrical cables or a wire harness. These headers typically include printed circuit board pins mounted in the header in several rows. The terminal pins are typically either solid pins or stamped and formed pins. The pins extend through a molded header housing between a mating face and a rear face. An electrical connector receptacle attached to the conductors in a cable or harness is mated to the header and the header pins at the header mating face. The opposite ends of the pins are attached to a printed circuit board, typically by soldering the pins to the board. Both straight pin and right angle pin versions of these headers are common.
One conventional use of these headers is as an input/output device for the electrical component including the printed circuit board. In most cases, the header is mounted on one edge of the printed circuit board. Components are typically mounted in an enclosure or box or behind a bulkhead, and the input/output header extends through a hole in one wall of the enclosure.
One common form of such headers is a right angle header. The mating interface of right angle header permits insertion of a mating connector on the side of a printed circuit board. The pins or terminals on right angle headers must however be bent at right angles. Typically the pins or terminals in conventional right angle headers are bent after the terminals are inserted into the header housing. The right angle header is then mounted on the printed circuit board with the mating portion of the header extending horizontally.
If a right angle header of this type is mounted in an enclosure containing a printed circuit board, the header is typically positioned in an opening on the side of the enclosure. If the enclosure must be sealed, a seal must then be provided between the header housing and the enclosure opening in which the connector is mounted. An alternate approach, which eliminates this seal, is to mold the header as an integral part of the enclosure. For example, the header housing can be molded on the side wall of the enclosure with openings molded in the enclosure for the insertion of terminals or pins. If a right angle configuration is used, the terminals would typically be bent at right angles after they have been inserted through openings in the side wall of the enclosure. The header terminals would then be attached to the printed circuit board, for example by soldering the header terminals or pins to the printed circuit board. With this approach, the bending operation must be performed on a subassembly including the enclosure that is larger than the header and is typically more cumbersome. The enclosure must also be part of the soldering operation, and the enclosure must be molded using a material that can withstand the temperatures encountered in the soldering operation. If the enclosure includes a bottom surface, the header terminals or pins cannot be wave soldered and a surface mount soldering operation, with inherently higher temperatures, must be employed. Materials that can withstand these higher temperatures are typically more expensive.
Header assemblies are commonly used in automotive electronics applications. For example, such connector or enclosure assemblies can be employed in MAP or manifold absolute pressure sensors. A typical prior art assembly of this type includes a lead frame insert molded in a housing with a printed circuit board located in a central housing cavity. Contact tabs, formed from the lead frame, protrude from the sides of the housing or are located in mating cavities on the side of the housing. Contact fingers, also formed from the lead frame, extend into the central cavity containing the printed circuit board. In some cases the printed circuit board is not in the same plane as the lead frame. The contact fingers are formed to extend between the two planes are soldered to the printed circuit board or attached in other conventional means. An alternative method of attaching contact tabs in one plane with a printed circuit board in another plane is to wire bond the contact tabs to the printed circuit board. In this method, the rear of the contact tabs extend into the housing cavity. Horizontal surfaces in the cavity support the rear of the contact tabs, and a wire is bonded to the top of these tabs using a conventional wire bonding head. The wire is than bonded to a pad on the printed circuit board. This prior art approach involves bonding a wire on two different planes and is some applications access to the lower printed circuit board can be restricted. Placement of components can also be dictated by wire bonding considerations, further limiting the options available for design of the assembly. With dual row contact tabs, wire bonds must be made to contact tabs on different layers. Each lower tab can either be immediately below the corresponding upper tab or only slightly offset. The lower wire bond must therefore be fabricated before the upper bond. Wire bond reliability is a problem and a significant number of defective assemblies can be anticipated. Repair of the lower wire bond is especially difficult, because access is difficult. Although wire bonding does offer some advantages in assemblies of this type, there are still attendant difficulties which are overcome by the invention described herein.